Said Words
by whiterose03
Summary: Sequel to Missed words! Tezuka never did like hospitals! TezuRyo


Ahhhh! I've had this on my computer for sometime but never put it up, sorry about that! Anyways, here is the sequel for Missed Words

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis

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_Said Words_

_whiterose03_

You don't know how long you have waited, minutes, hours, days, but you know the doctor hasn't come out yet. You don't have to look up to see that during the wait, Ryoma's parents had come into the waiting room, taking seats across from you. Without actually looking up you can already tell Echizen-san, Ryoma's mother, is crying silently while her husband tries to comfort her. Echizen Nanjirou would have a serious looking face, mouth withdrawn and eyes bloodshot from the lack of sleep, a foreign face on a once carefree man.

Sobbing could be heard in another corner of the room. You think Oishi is most likely comforting Eiji while he cries. Words such as "ochibi-chan" and "not fair" keep coming out of Eiji's mouth and no one is telling him to be quiet. If you looked up you would have seen Kaidoh and Momoshiro who, for once, are not arguing and sitting beside each other quietly. Inui is standing in the corner clutching one of his notebooks in his hands not knowing what to do. You would also have seen Fuji sitting right beside you, piercing blue eyes wide open, clutching both his hands onto Kawamura's arm. If you were yourself, you would have told Fuji to loosen his grip since Kawamura's arm was beginning to turn purple though he wasn't saying anything either.

Suddenly your heart clenches and you can't breathe. For a second, an immense pain races through your body before leaving. You draw in a shuddering breath trying to relax your muscles that had tensed up from the pain.

A feeling of dread has built up and you can't suppress the shiver that races through your body. You glance at the door that Ryoma was rolled into sometime ago and try to will the doctor to come out, to tell you what has happened. Even though you are a patient person, this situation really is testing your patience.

The feeling of dread is still there settling upon your heart and it's sometimes hard to breathe. It makes you want to do something foolish like pray, but you're not one to be religious, choosing to believe in yourself for things to happen, so you are at a loss on which God to pray for to help Ryoma.

Your elbows rest on your thighs, leaving you in a crouched position, and your hands are clutched together with your head resting on them. You think to yourself, what else can you lose?

_'Please, let him be okay.' _

It's a foreign concept, praying, and it feels uncomfortable when you are done, but you feel a little bit better even though the feeling of dread hasn't left yet.

Some time passes, but you don't notice, lost in past memories of cocky smirks, clay courts and breathtaking matches. You don't notice that the dread has disappeared until the creaking of a door opening.

Your head snaps to the door where the surgeon stands. '_Dr. Shindou_,' you remind yourself now that you can see his nametag.

No one speaks, all too nervous and scared about the outcome.

"Well, when we started and found the tumor, the damage was just as we expected. We were taking it slow and steady. However…."

You hated that word.

"However, in the middle of removing the tumor, his pulse rate started dropping and for a minute there we lost his heart beat."

You wonder if that was why your heart clenched.

"We got it back, but we really couldn't do anything until he stabilized."

"63.8." You hear Inui mumbling and it takes you a while to figure out that it was the percentage of Ryoma actually stabilizing and you wonder how Inui know this since it has nothing to do with tennis.

"He eventually did after a half an hour, which is good since any more time would have not been worth it."

You now hate and don't care for the doctor since he's drawing it out too long. That and he shouldn't have said the last part.

"So we went back in and took the rest of the tumor out." He finally finishes with a flourish.

"So is he going to be okay?" Oishi asks, always the mother hen. That and nobody else really could say it.

"Yes, the surgery was a complete success, though he'll need a lot of recovering time until he's 100 back to health."

The break of tension in the waiting room almost brought you to your knees. A sob of relief filters through your ears and you can see Rinko-san sobbing onto her husband saying 'He's all right!' Eiji soon joined her, yelling at Oishi that 'Ochibi's all right,' crying tears of relief. Everyone else then joins in and you're sort of glad that they are too busy with their relief because as you tilt your head back to look at the ceiling, you are pretty sure you can feel your own tears of relief sliding down your face.

Some time later you're walking back into Echizen's room, except this time you're not by yourself but with the rest of your team members…the rest of your friends as well as Ryoma's parents.

Everyone settles into the room with you at the foot of the bed, quietly drinking in the sight of Ryoma, not only because you all thought that you would never see him again, but also because you never would have thought that Ryoma looks so peaceful while sleeping. You would never expect such a cocky boy to be that innocent looking while sleeping. Many in the room stared in awe at the unusual look on the boy-wonder's face and a flash went off, signaling that a picture had been taken, which can only be Fuji. You don't know how Fuji got a camera but you're disgruntled that he has a picture of Ryoma sleeping. A burning feeling of jealousy rushes through you, you want to be the only one to see that face and not anyone else…maybe you can get a copy of the picture from Fuji later. He at least doesn't look sickly pale like he was when you last saw him.

"Hoi, hoi, ochibi-chan looks so cute!" Eiji exclaims out loud, disturbing the peace. "Ne Oishi, doesn't he look so cute?"

"Eiji, calm down! You might wake up Echizen!" Oishi whispers back.

"Oh, don't worry Oishi-senpai. Echizen can sleep through anything." Momoshiro comments.

"Shut-up idiot."

"What did you say Mamushi?"

"Fsshhhhh."

"Ano…um maybe we should quiet down." The even-tempered (only when he's without a racket) Kawamura butted in trying to help Oishi calm the others.

"Ne, Taka-san, here you go." Fuji says sweetly, handing him a racket.

"BURNING! ORA ORA, BE QUIET OR I WILL SHUT YOU UP GODDAMMIT!"

You only now notice the bag Fuji is carrying and you wonder where it came from, but you're too relieved since everyone is back to normal.

"Ie data."

Yes everything is back to normal. The muffled laughter from Rinko-san fills the room too and you are pretty sure you heard Nanjirou-san snort.

Kaidoh and Momo are still fighting and Oishi is trying to get the racket out of Taka-san's grip while trying to get Momo and Kaidoh to stop fighting. Eiji, Fuji, and Inui (and his notebook) are looking on in amusement, but you really don't notice that.

All you notice is the stirring movements of Ryoma and then the fluttering of his eyes as they open. His eyes lock onto yours and your breath starts to quicken and you suppress the gasp that wants to break free from the look Ryoma gives you, his eyes full of an unnamed emotion and curiosity.

"Buchou?" His voice rasps out and suddenly everyone is quiet.

"Ryoma!" His mother exclaims, coming forward to grab onto one of his hands. He looks up and he notices everyone else in the room. You think it's just like Echizen Ryoma to have gotten used to everyone's banter to tune it out.

"Minna," he rasps out again and Oishi already has a glass of water in hand for Ryoma. Rinko-san takes the glass holding it up to Ryoma's mouth. Ryoma drinks it with slight difficulty, but his eyes glare at anyone to dare say anything. Too bad the team has already gotten use to his glares.

"Kawaii!" Fuji interjects, another flash appearing right after and the others agree. Ryoma glares harder, while your lips twitch upwards for a couple of seconds.

Before Ryoma could bark out a snarky comment, he is interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hello, awake I see." Dr. Shindou comments as he walks into the room.

"Who are you?" Ryoma bites out, transferring his glares onto the doctor. You realize he never did like being interrupted.

"I'm the one who did the surgery on you," he answers back looking over Echizen's charts and sloughing off Ryoma's glare. You notice that this made Ryoma glare even harder and you're hard pressed to stop the twitching of your lips upwards.

"Ryoma," Rinko-san admonishes Ryoma, who huffs out.

"Che."

"Ryoma!"

"Echizen."

"Ochibi!!"

A crow of voices shouts out at his lack of gratitude. He rolls his eyes before they catch yours. You quirk one of your eyebrows and frown, trying to show your disapproval at his attitude, even though you want to smirk because this is Ryoma with his snarky attitude.

"Arigato." He mumbles out to the doctor and you change your look back to your stoic expression, causing Ryoma to smirk while he slyly glances at you.

"Oh, the shounen knows manners!" Nanjirou exclaims while the others around Ryoma laughed. A scowl resurfaces as Ryoma looks at his father, but you can see the soft expression in his eyes when he looks at his father and his unkempt appearance.

"Baka Oyaji! I'll beat you up."

"Ha! Mada mada shounen, you're still light-years away from beating me." Nanjirou-san boasts while Ryoma rolled his eyes.

"Just wait until I get out of here, then we'll see." Ryoma challenges.

"That wouldn't be a wise idea." The doctor interrupts. All heads swivel towards the doctor.

"What do you mean? You said the surgery was a success!" Rinko-san asks.

"It was, but Echizen-san has a lot of rehabilitation to undergo to get his body back to normal. And it'll take longer to get back into the prime form that he was in before."

"But he'll be able to play tennis again, right?" Oishi asks and you hope he has an affirmative answer because you don't know what Ryoma would do without tennis. Ryoma is tennis just as tennis is Ryoma.

"He'll be able to play if he has the will."

"Keh! The kid is the most stubborn and pig-headed person I've known! I don't know where he got it from." Nanjirou comments while scratching his head in wonderment. Everyone looks at him in disbelief and you notice the even Ryoma is looking at his father in exasperation.

"Well, that's good, I was wondering if you two would want to come to my office so I could inform you on what type of rehabilitation Echizen-san should be taking." The surgeon comments and with that Ryoma's parents left with the doctor calling out to Ryoma that they would be back and that he should rest (which came from Rinko-san).

As soon as the door closes, a growl could be heard and turning towards the noise, you are amused to see Momoshiro clutching his stomach.

"Ahh, I'm so hungry." He exclaims out loud. You hear Ryoma snort at this.

"Momo-senpai, you're always hungry." Ryoma comments and Momoshiro squawks out loud at that.

"Maa, maa, we did miss lunch and it is almost dinner. Maybe we should get something to eat…but…" Oishi trails off looking at Ryoma with a frown. You are pretty sure that Oishi thinks that Ryoma shouldn't be left alone, almost everyone can tell that.

"Ne, Oishi-senpai, you all can go, buchou will stay with me." Ryoma tells Oishi and when the others look towards you, you just nod your head in agreement because not only do you want to stay with Ryoma, but also because you don't feel particularly hungry, not with the look Ryoma directs at you just now while everyone is not looking.

"Okay. We'll come back afterwards." Oishi compromises and you know that he will be back soon and probably with food as well, admonishing that hospital food is not good for you and doesn't have enough nutrients either.

As the rumble and laughter files out of the room, the door finally shuts with a click. Now it's just the two of you and you don't know what to say, let alone try to look at him. With all your brashness beforehand, you are suddenly nervous about being alone with Ryoma and what he thinks of you, because you two never did discuss the kiss due the fact that he has to be in surgery right afterwards.

"Kunimitsu."

Your head snaps towards Ryoma, because this is the first time he has said your name like that. You take in a shuddering breath from the look he's giving you, because you're so used to seeing a sullen Ryoma, an angry Ryoma, and a smirking Ryoma, but you have never seen a smiling Ryoma, not like this. You can feel your own smile answering his own.

"Echizen." He frowns at that and it makes you smile even wider.

"Ryoma." He admonishes you.

"Ryoma." You answer back. He nods to himself, satisfied before beckoning you closer. You walk to the side of the bed not breaking your gaze with his eyes.

"Why?" He asks and your forehead scrunches up at his vague question. Ryoma, too annoyed to expand further, takes a hold of your shirt and pulls you toward him. To stop from crushing the boy, you settle your hands to either side of his head until your face is only a couple of inches away from his. Before you could back up, this time, it's Ryoma that initiates the kiss, pulling his head up the scant inches to capture your lips. '_Oh,_' you think to yourself.

His teeth nibbled your bottom lip, trying to coax you to return the kiss, and after the initial shock of 'Yes, Ryoma is really kissing you,' you take control of the kiss. Angling your head a little, you leave your right hand where it is placed by Ryoma's head while your left hand cups Ryoma's face, angling his head to a more suitable position. He moans out and a shiver races down your spine and you can't help slipping your tongue through his parted lips to trace the cavern of his mouth. You hold in the moan wanting to escape and continue to plunder his mouth, but it's not enough. Your breath is laboured as well as his and you can feel his arms around your neck. He tries to pull himself towards you, but the hand that was cradling his face slips down to his chest, pushing him back. Your lips part with his and you can't keep the moan that escapes you this time, when you are greeted with a flushed, swollen-lipped Ryoma.

He tries to reach for you again, but you stop him, making him settle back down. He winces in pain as his movement catches up to him, but he tries to cover it up.

"You shouldn't move around too much, you just got out of surgery." You tell him. He glances at you and scowls.

"I'm not invalid." He barks out, clutching onto your shirt again to bring you closer. You sigh before releasing yourself from his hold and moving away. He looks at you, confused by your actions.

"You're not ready for that yet. You winced when you move." You explain to him, trying to tell him that he should rest and recover.

"Yet?" He asks, the familiar smirk back in place and even though it is so uncharacteristic of you, you roll your eyes.

"Get better." You tell him, scuttling away from the question. He huffs out in annoyance.

"Why did you kiss me?" He asks directly.

"Why did you kiss me?" You answer back. He glares and with a smile you appease him.

"Because I love you." You tell him. His eyes widen in shock, before a sly smile graces his lips.

"Oh?"

"Hai!"

"Buchou?"

"Ai…"

"I love you too."

And that is when you promptly kiss him again because really, what else would you have done in that situation?

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How was it?????

R & R please to let me know!


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